Preliminary Ike Post

There are no Hurricane Ike-related posts yet. If I am forced to post away from home, it is much easier for me to post here than on the YDD. I'll notify you there before I begin posting here.

Temporary Comment Thread

While HaloScan isn't working, please write your YDD comments on the thread to this post.

YDD Up Again For Now

The YDD appears to be up again. The host is replacing a lot of hardware tonight; do not be surprised if there are more outages.

YDD Appears To Be Down Again

Wednesday around 8pm CDT. Domain is found, but site never loads in the browser. No word yet from the host's status site; it says everything is OK... but Bryan's Why Now? is also not loading.

I'll keep everyone informed here. Sorry for the ongoing problems.

UPDATE: here's a bit from the notice on our host's status site:

One of our fileservers has choked under the increased load. This has wiped out a few of our content (web) servers.

They're still having to add replacement hardware for all of that which was destroyed in the great power outage a few days ago. Stay tuned. If this takes more than, say, 2 hours, I'll resume blogging here.

YDD Coming Back Online

The YDD is coming online now. I'll wait a few minutes before transferring the posts below onto the YDD. Keep your fingers crossed that this does not ever, ever happen again.

Drugs In Drinking Water

A lot of us are consuming them. A lot more of us don't know whether we are or are not consuming them. Houston is among the places that haven't tested for tiny amounts of prescription and other drugs in their water supply, and a lot of providers simply aren't telling their customers. Here's a report of the AP study linked above:

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water

By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD – 9 hours ago

A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs — and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

...

Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed.

...

Please read the rest of the AP article for details on how this happens. Your first guess is probably the correct one.

(Again, this will be cross-posted to the YDD when that is possible.)

Palast Tells Real Story Of Exxon Valdez

And it's much nastier than the "drunken pilot" story Exxon popularized. Read of Exxon's internally acknowledged intentions of out-waiting the locals in Valdez, lawyering the Alaskans' claims until they died... which has happened now in some of the Exxon Valdez cases.

As I age, I am beginning to see that the rise of large corporations, coupled with the legal concept of "corporate personhood," is among the most pernicious things America has created in the short span of its existence. I've worked for the damned things for much of my career, including oil companies (never Exxon, but that's just by chance, and I do not see them as materially different from one another), and sometimes, when I read stories like this, I feel I have much to answer for. I know, at least, that Exxon has much to answer for.

Oh, did I mention that the story refers to (wince) McCain?

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(To be posted on the YDD when it revives.)

Armed Cathouse

Greg Palast's book, Armed Madhouse, has a section on just how the GOP is going to steal the 2008 presidential election in November. It's really pretty simple, because it consists of extensions of several techniques used to steal sElection 2000 and sElection 2004: caging, challenges and the "disappearing" of votes, not by the hundreds as we thought in 2000, but by the millions. Whose votes get "lost"? Why, of course, they're not all African Americans' votes... just most of 'em. Many of the rest are the votes of elderly Jewish voters.

Who benefits? Palast's title reflects a line from a poem by his teacher, the late Allen Ginsberg: "The soul should not die ungodly in an armed madhouse." How prophetic. But today's neocons and corporate whores are interested, not in prophets, but in profits. Spend all the money, all the efforts, all the reputation of the United States of America on endless war, unceasing for a hundred years or more as McCain instructs us, and you visit the corporate whore defense contractors in their armed cathouse. It is my opinion that America's soul should not die ungodly in the Bushists' armed cathouse.

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(Some version of this post will be reproduced on the YDD when it is online again.)

And... We're Off. Again.

Apparently my host's MySQL server is blowing drives, so that they are having to replace the entire server. As always, I have a complete local backup of the YDD, including the pair of posts I managed to put up during the short time window in which things were working. Again, apologies. Not their fault; not my fault... but the blog is still not up. If the YDD is down for long enough, I'll resume blogging here.

Service Restored On YDD

I'm not sure exactly when it came back up, but the YDD is working again, and it appears the site is complete.

Power Outage On YDD Host

The YDD site is down because someone turned the power off to the hosting company's entire building (located in another state), without notifying my hosting company. It looks pretty bad as far as damage done to their servers, so it may take a few more hours for them to fix it.

If the YDD comes up displaying an earlier version, please have patience; I have a complete local copy of the blog, and will restore it to its current state from immediately before the power outage.

Back To The YDD

It's time to go back to the YDD now. Thanks for following me over here; now please follow me back...

Troop Cuts In Iraq - WHEN?

Via TPM, here's an AP story that caught my attention:

Officials: Bush to announce troop cut

Summary Box: Officials Say Bush Will Adopt Petraeus' Recommendations on Troop Withdrawals

The Associated Press
AP News

Sep 11, 2007 16:46 EDT

UPCOMING ADDRESS: President Bush will tell the nation this week he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by about 30,000 by next summer, The Associated Press has learned.

CONDITIONAL CUTS: But he will condition those and further cuts on continued progress.

ENDORSEMENT: In a prime-time television address, probably Thursday, Bush will endorse the recommendations of his top general and top diplomat in Iraq.

He'll do what? when?

Next summer equals a year from now? Our armed forces will be eviscerated by then; what good will it do to withdraw troops after hundreds (thousands?) more are dead, and that much more equipment is destroyed? And... condition the cuts on continued progress? Isn't that exactly backwards? If Iraq is a quagmire, a nation in a civil war, shouldn't the lack of progress indicate a withdrawal of troops?

Welcome to Wonderland. That's most definitely the world through the looking-glass that Mr. Bush is describing.

The Real Meaning Of September 11

My calendar informs me that this is Patriot Day. That must be so, because it is the birthday of Mad Kane, and I know of no greater patriot than Ms. Kane.

Have a happy one, Mad. May you live to see many more birthdays, and happier times than these.

Buy The Numbers

Or don't. I don't.

Spencer Ackerman has some things to say about Petraeus's methodology, his numbers, possible reasons why those numbers differ from the GAO's, etc.

Ackerman is right to ask the questions about the numbers, but regarding the methodology, there's only one significant fact: it's a secret. That's right. Petraeus tells us, "Two US intelligence agencies recently reviewed our methodology, and they concluded that the data we produce is the most accurate and authoritative in Iraq."

OK. What methodology? Which agencies? Simple questions, right? Hard to argue that that much is a matter of national security. Why shouldn't we get to know the answers?

Government, like warfighting, is not a science in the usual sense of the term. But when they use statistical methods to gather information that supports one or another course of action in a war, the public has a right to know what those methods are, and what numbers are cranked through those methods. In that one sense, government, using statistics, is a science: one should be given enough information to reproduce the results or challenge them. That has always been the nature of science. And writers as far back as Thomas Jefferson have noticed the similarity, between science and an open society with a representative government, of openness of discussion and the requirement of reproducibility imposed on arguments. In both, you must show your work.

In this case, it's worse than that, though. Not only is Petraeus saying, "trust us," but the government whose position he is advocating... face it, his is a political errand, not a military one... has given us every reason not to trust them.

I urge you: Do it by the numbers, but don't buy the numbers being sold by the Bush administration through Gen. Petraeus. Are they right? wrong? Who knows! But absent our ability to confirm them independently, they have the same credibility as, say, lumber companies' position papers regarding forest conservation, oil companies' statements about global warming, etc. Purchase your numbers only from a reputable source, and check them yourself if possible.

Krugman Snarks

... on TPMCafe. Here's a sample:

There’s only one word to describe Jon Chait’s book: shrill. I mean, how can Chait say that “American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists”? The cocktail-party circuit knows better.

Read the rest. Hey, if we can get straight news from Jon Stewart, why should Krugman not be a funny man when he chooses?

The MoveOn Ad

According to TPM Election Central, the MoveOn ad (note: .pdf) that refers to Gen. Petraeus as "General Betray-us" has upset GOPers so much that they are attempting a House resolution condemning it. As one who has himself used the "Betray-us" pun... condemning Bush, not Petraeus... I feel a need to respond.

Is Gen. Petraeus a traitor? Of course not. His judgment in this matter is execrable, but I have no sense whatsoever that his is a willful act against the interest of the U.S., or any sort of aid and comfort to our enemies. That's simple BS. If you want arguably traitorous actions, look to the good General's boss, the one occupying the Oval Office.

Is Petraeus lying? I don't think so. He is probably seriously misguided himself, and he is being the "good soldier" in following what I am certain are Bush's orders to say what he said.

Is the ad tasteless? IMHO, yes, it is.

Does anyone saying anything critical of any public figure deserve a congressional resolution of condemnation? HELL, NO! Have the bastards never heard of free speech? Oh, right... many of them view the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as "quaint."

Count me as a constitutional fundamentalist if you will, but I don't think the GOP believes in fundamental American values anymore... you know, the ones embedded in that "scrap of paper," as Bush is reported to have called it.

Home Away From Home

Welcome to the YDD-in-exile; thanks for making the trip. I presume that jdw (head honcho at my hosting company) is sleeping off the overnighter he pulled to move the service, physically, to a new location... a truly herculean task. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to restart the FTP and SFTP services on which I depend to post the YDD. So I'll be here at the YDD Annex until I can post the YDD.

You could say I'm fighting blog problems here so I won't have to fight them at home...

Delay in YDD Availability; Savage's Cheney Project

Not surprisingly, it's taking my host longer to complete the transition to the new facilities than was anticipated... such things always contain unexpected obstacles. But based on the status site, they are making good progress.

While you wait, you may want to read a post at TPMCafe's Table for One by Charlie Savage called The Cheney Project, which gives some background on the breadth of scope and length of time (three decades!) over which Cheney's pursuit of, let's face it, a totalitarian American government has been in the works. I'll write on the subject later today (Tuesday) once the YDD site is reactivated.

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Well, this isn't fun. It's Tuesday morning, 7:40am CT, and the YDD just became visible, but I can't post to it yet. I'll try again in an hour or so. Apologies to all 2 of you who looked for me; thanks for the thought.

Scheduled YDD Outage Monday 9/10

The YDD is unavailable while the host physically relocates servers to a new datacenter. The scheduled outage is in progress at about 6:00pm CDT and should be completed by sometime this evening.

Temporary Comments 200712

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